As part of tourism promotion
By: JOEY A. GABIETA
TACLOBAN CITY- The city government under Mayor Cristina Romualdez is soon to launch a campaign giving Tacloban City its own branding as part of their effort to invite more tourists to visit the city.
Romualdez disclosed this saying that the launching of the campaign would take place before the city celebrates its annual fiesta on June 30.
By giving Tacloban its own brand, it would now be easy for tourists and even investors to have an easy recall of the city, considered the regional hub of Eastern Visayas.
“We will soon launch it. It will be a big launching,” Romualdez said.
The city mayor disclosed this on the heels of a successful national promotional campaign of Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan’s Spark Samar campaign held on March 9 at the SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City.
She clarified that the campaign has been planned a year ago but was sidelined as she gave focus on other ‘immediate concerns’ of the city like providing accessible potable drinking water, particularly those located in the resettlement sites whose houses were destroyed when Tacloban was devastated by super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
“We need to have a brand of our own as other cities have their own brand. We should have one of our own considering that Tacloban is the premier city of the region,” the city mayor said.
Asked for details on the campaign, Romualdez declined to say saying that they are still making some fine tuning on it with the help of their friends in an advertising company in Manila.
Romualdez, a former movie actress, also said they would solicit help from her friends in the movie industry on this campaign.
She, however, admitted that Tacloban will forever be known as the city that suffered massive devastation due to Yolanda, considered the world’s strongest typhoon to hit inland.
“We are known because of Yolanda but we have to rise up from the ashes, so to speak. We have to be positive and for the people outside to say that the city has recovered and that it has other beautiful things to offer for them,” Romualdez, a former movie actress said.
She said that aside from visiting Yolanda memorials constructed within the city one of which was a bow of a ship, M/V Eva Jocelyn located in Anibong district, which washed ashore when Tacloban City was pummeled by Yolanda on November 8,2013, visitors of the city could visit its other attractions like the San Juanico Bridge; the Santo Niño Shrine; Calvary Hills; and the Balugo Falls, among others.
“We want them to stay longer in Tacloban and on the following days, they could visit other places in the region. We are promoting not just Tacloban but Leyte and Samar,” Romualdez said.
Last year, 537,215 visited Tacloban of which more than 28,700 of them were foreigners.
At present, there are 83 hotels operating in the city with more than 2,500 combined rooms capacity.
The Robinsons’ Summit Hotel, which has a 380 room capacity, is to open this summer.
